Ecstatic to have landed in a place of seemingly eternal sunshine I embraced the Californian outdoor lifestyle.

Enjoyed long runs through the wooded hills that protect Berkeley from the big, bad conventional world beyond and spent weekends on hikes through the wilderness with the many others – mostly Silicon Valley sorts – in need of a natural antidote to the stress and stiff muscles that come from 40-plus hours a week behind a desk.

Like one of the eponymous antiheroes in Jack Kerouack’s 1958 novel The Dharma Bums we were intent on avoiding the cycle of ‘work – produce – consume/work – produce – consume’ that entraps so many.